Please Please Help

[waterdrop]

Agree with Anna, you want to be pretty sure about diagnosis. Also, should mention that all you have to do is find one of oldman47's posts and he has the link at the bottom to a good ich treatment web page - I'm just throwing that out because I'm busy at the mo and can't go back through your thread or figure out questions, sorry. WD
edit: forgot to say, yes, I believe salt may be mentioned in the article in OM47's link and is fine in that context, but it still stands re what Anna said

 

[Sami9999]

So I replaced my API master kit and tested my water. Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 5ppm. Have not changed the water in 12 hours I am hopeful after this test. I have moved all the goldfish to the pond and have put all the media into 55 gal.

The fish in quarantine has died...not sure why hope it is not ich. I am going to take her to the lfs and see if they can help out.

 

[Sami9999]

Well lost another female guppy and a cardinal tetra. I retested my water and got the same results ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 5ppm ph 7.2. Not sure why they died hope I don't lose anymore. Any ideas what may have happened? The rest are swimming normally and seem fine. The fish were ordered from
liveaquaria.com...any experiences with them?

 

[waterdrop]

"Any ideas what may have happened?"

For fish, both cycling and transport are life and death situations. Both carry the danger of exposure to amounts of ammonia and nitrite(NO2) that are too high. When ammonia is too high there can be permanent gill damage and nitrite is even worse, blocking oxygen positions on the red blood cells and leading quickly to permanent nerve and brain damage. Sometimes these things have been sustained but don't lead to death right at the time as the fish hangs on a bit and then dies after your stats are looking better. As with all life, there are weaker individual specimens and sometimes those are the ones that don't make it. This is my guess assuming there aren't other things wrong we are missing.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Sami9999]

Water test results for today ammonia 0 nitrite0 nitrate 0...thinking maybe I did not shake the nitrate test enough will retest in a bit.

WD thank you. I lost two more female guppies...find it a bit odd that I am only losing females. The males seem healthy and happy. It makes sense that the weaker ones would die off after the stress of shipping and a new tank.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, reagent bottle 2 has a precipitate that can get stuck at the bottom of the bottle and can also plug up the nipple sometimes. I make it a habit to crack the bottle against a tabletop or whatever a few times before starting the long shaking and of course, observe all the shaking periods (little kitchen timers that hang around your neck are a great aqua-hobbyist item.)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Sami9999]

So I added aquarium salt...1 tbs per 5 gallons. I also raised the temp to 82 will raise it to 84 tomorrow. Tested water three times today ammonia 0 nitrite 0...Nitrate still 0 I tried giving bottle two a few good taps on the table. Maybe I am still not doing it hard enough. Still doing 50 to 20% water changes daily. Lost another female this evening...really curious why the female guppies are the only fish dying. One more question...how do I get my frogs to eat...I got them live blood worms and have tried dropping them in front of the cave they hang out in when I turn off the lights. I have also tried hand feeding them and nothing. I am starting to worry about them. Sorry for all the questions and thank you all so much for your help and your time...and for helping to keep my wonderful fish alive.

 

[waterdrop]

Well, I don't know the answers to all your questions..

Let's do a reset for the members: correct me if I'm wrong - We've got a 55g in the USA that's in a fish-in cycle because 31 fish were ordered online by other family members. We've lost a number of fish and must be in the 20's by now.

We are now seeing 0,0,5 via a new API kit and the pH is coming up 7.2. The female guppies are dying and the frogs are not eating.

The stats appear to say that your water changes should be keeping things under control but its not good to still be losing fish. The fish may have suffered in transport more than we know. The guppies will also have a little bit harder time down toward neutral water since they are hard-water lovers. Normally 7.2 should be ok but if they've had a rough time in transport and are feeling a little of the effects of a new tank then that might one possible explanation for why we are losing females I suppose (or they might just be weak stock.)

I am not a frog person, so have no experience with what will entice them. Members?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Curiosity101]

Nice summation WD

I'm not entirely convinced by those water results... but at the same time with big daily water changes, and with the fact they aren't likely to be adult fish it's not alot of bioload on the tank and if the tap has low nitrates anyways...
I wouldn't be doing anymore daily water changes, I'd give things a chance to settle for 24 hours.

But all these deaths... I can only think it's either bad stock, or that they really suffered during transport.

As for the frogs... I'm not a frog person either but I've read quite a few of the threads. I personally wouldn't have them in such a large tank going by what I've read. They seem to be quite timid, and also need to breath air. In the current situation to breath air they have to make a very long dash passing quite a few fish and they may genuinely just be afraid. Not afraid in a human sense, but their natural instinct to survive may have kicked in, and feeding isn't top of the agenda.

I would be tempted to try them in a 10-20l tank/tub that is filtered and heated. Give them some cover and see if they perk up. Also, I doubt the salt is doing them much good. They are 100% freshwater, I'm only speculation on this but maybe they're being irritated by the salt?
You're definitely feeding them right, there are more things that they can eat. But from what I've seen live bloodworm will be the thing to get them eating if nothing else works.

 

[waterdrop]

Very nice job on the froggy speculations there C101, and all this coming from us non-frog people ... Seriously, your comments ring a bell with me too. I seem to remember that perhaps they don't like a deep tank and that they are timid (heck, they'd probably like a little island nearby,lol)

I also truly meant to include in my summary that I think the OP is doing salt and heat after a fish possibly died from Ich.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Curiosity101]

I also truly meant to include in my summary that I think the OP is doing salt and heat after a fish possibly died from Ich.

~~waterdrop~~

Yup, I skim read the rest of the thread and understood that. Hence not implying the salt should be removed, but more that perhaps the frogs would benefit from living alone for awhile.

 

[waterdrop]

Yeah, and a little tank with the right stuff might not cost all that much. Little tanks are among the cheapest of items in the aquarium world.

 

[Sami9999]

Thank you guys. So I haven't changed the water in 24 hours and ammonia is still 0 nitites 0 and nitrates 0. I have all of the mature media from my goldfish tanks in my filter. I know goldfish are messy and have a high bio load. I have some odd plants popping up I have no idea where they came from...they look a bit like sprouts. Not really relevant but I found it odd.

No fish have shown any signs of ich and lost another female. I noticed some white spots around her mouth and it got me worried. I called a few vets and none of them can help so I am taking her to the lfs to see if they can help. One vet recommend I try antibiotics.

They frogs come out often especially when I turn off the lights. They climb around on the decorations in the tank and do not seem to mind the fish. I have two ten gallon tanks that I use for small goldfish fry before they are moved to the pond. One currently has a betta in it and the other is empty. I will set up the empty one and put some media in it to start is cycling. Then the problem will be catching them.

 

[Sami9999]

So I talked to the lfs and they were baffled. I brought a few of my fish for them to look at. This store only specializes in fish and to date have been very knowledgeable. They ruled out ich and cotton mouth. Said that it could possibly be gill flukes but had no clue why it was only affecting the female guppies. They also recommended a broad spectrum antibiotic and also an anti fungus med. The other idea they had was that some of the females gills were damaged during shipping and they are slowly suffocating...sounds so horrible I really hope not. I bought API Melefix (antibiotic) and API Pimafix (antifungal) I have not added them yet as I wanted some opinions. Again you guys are wonderful and I am so thankful for your help and I sure my fish are too.

Oh I got my frogs to eat. One of them is getting really bold and like to come out and explore...maybe they were just getting settled.

One more thing the lfs tests with an API kit so I had them check my water and they got the same readings I have been getting.

Thank you all for your time and knowledge!!!!!!

 

[Sami9999]

Water test results ammonia 0 nitrites 0 nitrates 5.